Recipe: Chilled tomato soup with cucumber salsa

SERVES 4First preheat the oven to 240C/220C fan/gas 9. In a large roasting dish, arrange 1.5kg • 3¼ lb tomatoes on the vine with 5 unpeeled garlic cloves in a single layer. Drizzle over 3 tbsp olive oil and roast for 20 minutes.

Once cool enough to handle, pinch the tomatoes off their vines, squeeze the garlic cloves from their papery skins and tip all into a blender with any roasting juices.

Season generously with salt, add a grinding of black pepper, 1 heaped tsp caster sugar, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar and 3 tbsp olive oil, and liquidise. Pass through a sieve into a bowl, cover, leave to cool, then chill.

For the salsa, peel and deseed a small cucumber and cut into small dice. Cut 1 baby red or yellow pepper into small thin slivers. Prepare 1 tbsp finely chopped red onion. Combine these and set aside until needed. Shortly before serving, toss the salsa ingredients with 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon or lime juice and a pinch of salt. Serve the soup with the salsa spooned over and a scattering of fresh coriander.

TEAM WITH SPICY CHICKEN TORTILLAS

Fill warmed tortillas with strips of cooked chicken, spoonfuls of guacamole from a tub, a dollop of sour cream, a dusting of paprika and pickled hot peppers to taste (from a jar, for example Fragata brand). Roll up and eat.